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Just about the only way to celebrate an anniversary in 2018: Taylor’s 1968 ‘Harvest’ Tawny.

Posted on 31st December 2017 |

For anyone nearing a fiftieth birthday, I have the sad news that 1968 was no great shakes as a vintage. According to Michael Broadbent, Bordeaux was ‘atrocious’, Burgundy and the Rhone were ‘poor’ (the Hospices de Beaune auction was cancelled) and Champagne doesn’t even get a mention. Port, Madeira (or perhaps California) are just about the only places where 1968 was not a write-off. In the Douro conditions were far from ideal. A late spring flowering was followed by a hot, dry summer then heavy rain fell just before harvest led to some rot. Some attractive but but early-maturing wines second-string wines were made (notably Fonseca Guimaraens, Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas and Graham's Malvedos) but these are now for drinking up. However Taylor’s have since acquired a fabulous stock of old cask-aged wine including colheitas or ‘harvest’ wines (effectively dated tawnies), some dating back to the nineteenth century. Crucially, these wines have been well cared for in the interim and are being bottled in limited quantities to celebrate important anniversaries. For around £175 a bottle you can celebrate being fifty in 2018.

Taylor’s 1968 ‘Harvest’ Tawny *****

Mid-deep mahogany-tinged tawny with an olive green rim; lifted and mellifluous on the nose with a glorious aroma of butterscotch which comes singing from the glass; wonderfully soft, silky creamy texture, rich and intense with a hint of toffee and butterscotch mid-palate, a touch savoury then a long fresh finish redolent of tangerine and dried apricots. Seamless from start to finish. What a wonderful way to celebrate in 2018. 19

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I had forgotten just how much I enjoy Port until I started tasting the recently released 2018s. With Covid-19, lockdown and the recent warm weather in the UK I have not been opening bottles of vintage Port. My wife is not a fortified fan (despite hailing from Madeira) and I have had no one to share a bottle of Port with. Sad but true.

Every year the Manchester Tennis and Racquet Club (home of one of the few Real Tennis courts in the UK) ask me to host a Port dinner to which members bring their own wines and the club contributes a bottle or two from their own cellar.

Don Schliff began collecting Port in 1969, inspired by a restaurant named the Studio Grill in Hollywood where Vintage Port was served by the glass. For many years the restaurant’s owner Ardison Philips organized vertical Port tastings on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year.